Date: October 18-21, 2016

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

The goal was to increase the relevance and benefits of plant and animal breeding to poor rural women producers in low-income countries, especially Africa. To this end, the workshop is designed to produce a synthesis of past success and promising novel approaches for incorporating gender considerations into the development of improved crop varieties and animal breeds.

The workshop aimed to identify the essential, “must have” ingredients of successful, gender- responsive breeding initiatives and to explore implications of the revolution in genomics for new opportunities and entry points in the breeding research cycle for effective integration of gender. This topic was addressed across crop, livestock and fish breeding: see the workshop’s open call for case studies section for more detail on content.

Objectives

Identify implications of the revolution in genomics for new opportunities and new entry points in the breeding research cycle for effective integration of gender;

Analyse the types of research needed for breeding programs to define and address a target population of gender-differentiated beneficiaries as well as to target biophysical environments;

Identify ways to improve gender-responsiveness and impact by sharing and harmonizing methods and approaches across commodities and regions;

Learn from and build on successful cases;

Identify gaps in the way in which Universities prepare breeders and social scientists to work together to ameliorate difficulties in properly addressing end user needs.

Outputs

Conclusions, recommendations and lessons from case studies will be disseminated across and beyond the CGIAR system and its partners to breeders, social scientists and others responsible for the overall management of breeding programs and/or involved in trait characterization and prioritization. The Gender and Breeding Group will subsequently synthesize the results of the workshop in the form of a White Paper with recommendations.

Participants

This included researchers, marketing experts and managers from diverse social and biophysical research fields and disciplines and a variety of international and national public and private sector Institutions. Participants presented case studies of different aspects of experience with integrating gender into breeding or keynote talks designed to stimulate debate from different viewpoints on the essential “must-haves” for success.

The workshop was planned for four days and was organized to promote creative, cross-disciplinary interaction and exchange in different sessions that include:

Laying out the challenges and opportunities

The first session aimed to establish a common understanding and language among participants from social and biophysical sciences of the structure of a breeding program, the breeding cycle, the position of genomic selection (GS) within a breeding program, the rationale for characterizing and differentiating target beneficiary groups (or customers) especially in terms of gender and the stages of breeding when gender-related traits need to be considered.

Learning from case studies

Several sessions were interspersed throughout the program in which case studies were presented and analyzed to derive lessons and identify “must have” ingredients of success.

What are the implications of the revolution in genomics for effective integration of gender?

Speakers and panel discussants presented different approaches and viewpoints for further debate in small groups

What is needed for breeding programs to target gender-differentiated beneficiary populations as well as biophysical environments?

Speakers and panel discussants presented different approaches and view points for further debate in small groups.

Ways to improve gender-responsiveness and impact by sharing and harmonizing methods and approaches across commodities and regions

Participants discussed opportunities for use of approaches and methods of interest derived from case studies and presentations.

Participants flagged key issues, approaches and actions that merit inclusion in the synthesis paper that the Working Group will produce based on the workshop case studies, conclusions and recommendations.

Workshop summary post

Important deficits in evidence and a lack of practical guidelines are holding back breeding programs from becoming more gender-responsive. This knowledge gap was the impetus for the Gender, Breeding and Genomics workshop organized by the CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network in Nairobi from October 18-21, 2016. The workshop aimed to stimulate active cross-fertilization of ideas from different breeding, genomics…